Address (Incomplete, unknown event or audience) American Liberty League. 400dpi TIFF G4 page images Digital Library Services, University of Kentucky Libraries Lexington, Kentucky LFP_rblue_2_02_01 These pages may freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Address (Incomplete, unknown event or audience) American Liberty League. Louisville Free Public Library Louisville, Ky unknown Is Part of the Reverend Thomas F. Blue Papers, ca. 1905-1935 housed at the Louisville Free Public Library, Louisville, KY. This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has been done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 1 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file. ï»¿I nave long since learned that "Culture is colorless" ; that the same uplifting educational agencies that will help the white boy and the white girl, the white man and the white woman, and man and the colored woman. Seventeen years ago in all the beautiful South Land th^re was not a single Free Public Library for Colored people; ana yet, Public Libraries f there were "Pree fit yy^tn^ -^h^^ But to the colored, the door was shut, this door of knowledge, this aoor of culture, this door of self improvement, this aoor of universal education, Louisville has the distinction of being the first Southern city to open to its colored citizens this door. In other words, Louisville was the first Southern city to provide for its Colored citizens a Free Public Library, in 1905 Louisville opened the first Colored Branch Library, on the principle of the public schools and the library authorities declared that it was a success from the beginning. Since that time, other cities have profited by Louisville's example, other cities have caught the spirit of Louisville, tHe spirit of fairness, the spirit of liberality, the spirit of "Charity for all", anci to'lay, Colored Branoh Libraries are.being opened all over the south. But Louisville is still in a class by itself, for it is the only-Southern City that has two Colored Branch Libraries housed in two beautiful Carnegie buildings, doing school station ï»¿and county worJc with an annual circulation of over 100,000 volumes% On behalf of the library authorities, on behalf of the 4-5,000 beneficiaries of our libraries, we welcome you. We welcome you to our city, we welcome you to our libraries, we welcome you to a_i_l that is ours. There are nine members on our staff, if we can do anything to make your visit here pleasant and profitable we are at your service.